Today Sheffield, Tomorrow, the Rest of the World

Me and my boyfriend have decided to start saving seriously for a trip, if not around the world, then at least around Europe or America/Canada. And you all thought I never actually get out. Well yes, I suppose this blog's name is a little ironic seen as though I don't really ever go anywhere, but in about two years I will hopefully be jetting off into the world. So, I am officially taking suggestions on what countries/cities to visit, anyone got any suggestions? :)

New Hair, New Life

I got my hair cut today, a fringe!! I have had my side parting for at least 7 years? Something like that anyway, and then suddenly on the spur of the moment I decided to get a fringe. Crazy, yes. It looks alright though :) I got a few looks walking through town, though they very easily could have been laughing. I must say I feel very strange with this fringe, seeing it above my eyes all the time, it will definitely take some getting used to! But I like it so far.

Before

After

Tomorrow we go on a trip with uni to Yorkshire Sculpture Park, which yes I went to only a month ago. However its a new exhibition so it should be good. I have a strong feeling they will make us walk the whole way round which is VERY far, so I'm not looking forward to that, but I do need the exercise: I feel like I've abandoned the gym. I'm on this diet you see, so far I lost 9lbs but I'm pretty sure I put some back on because I had some treats but yeah, the 3 mile walk will help :) I'm mostly excited because its just like a school trip :) so should be really fun.

And I've just realised I have just revealed my face for everyone to see. Well, there you go :) thats me!

Oops!

I know, I know, I have gone totally slack with this blog. If I'm honest it is because I am completely lazy! I haven't forgotten about it, in fact every day I scold myself, telling myself that I said I would post every day, even if I bored people to the point they tore their own hair out. But unsurprisingly, my efforts dropped.

OK, so updates. I have recently chosen my modules for next year: Children's literature and Writer as Teacher, both for the second semester, so during the first I will be doing the mandatory poetry and script writing, along with prose and there is some other ones in there I completely can't remember! The Children's lit attracted me because of the reading list and the study of the psychology behind books written for kids. Some of the books we look at are Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland, Harry Potter 3, The Illustrated Mum, Noughts and Crosses and, the one that cracks me up every time, Bumface! (yes yes I know, I'm childish). With Writer as Teacher, we go out to schools or community groups and run our own writing workshops, which terrifies me to my soul, but that's what I want to do when I finally get out of this place (uni) and get into real life. So I've got to start somewhere, right?

Erm, wow, the last book I reported on appears to be the Millennium Trilogy. Well, since then I have finished the MONSTER that is Under the Dome by Stephen King and, just finished tonight, American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis both of which were very good. American Psycho very detailed and gory, much worse than the film, but still great. The next book on my reading list is The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, by Stephen King.

I went up home for the weekend last week, first time since being back from Christmas. It was great but it was way too short. I miss home already and if I am honest, I cant wait until April to be back there for summer. I'm starting to hate being down here because I am just so out of the loop with home. I miss that life and this one here isn't good enough to make up for it. Roll on the end of uni I say!

At this particular moment this is all I can think of to report and, it being 1:23 am, I would like to go to sleep. So, goodnight.

Why Pay and Not Go?

To University I mean. We currently pay £3,200 PER YEAR to go to university, and my course in particular has a serious lack of classes. This semester (between now and when we finish for summer which is the week of the 18th of April!) We have a class on Tuesdays, wednesdays and thursdays, totalling 7 hours class time. This compared with other courses is certainly not a lot. On top of this we don't have any exams and if I am honest, only a minor amount of homework and assignments. Granted these assignments drove us insane over Christmas and no doubt will again before deadlines in May. But I personally think we have gotten off lightly to be doing a "real course", despite what some people think, and to have so little class time. So where is the excuse for not turning up?

There are several members of my class that turn up every time, myself being one of them, and then several who rarely turn up, the worst lesson for class attendance is, unsurprisingly, the thursday morning class at 9am. This class, however, is currently the most important because we are set a small assignment every two weeks to be completed and handed in as a group piece. The grades for all of the separate assignments will be added up and then you will be individually be awarded your average grade. In an attempt to make each persons overall grade fair you must be in a different group for every assignment. I don't know personally, is it just me or does this seem flawed? Im not sure what it is but it doesn't seem quite right to me. Even just the fact that some people can't even be bothered to turn up to the lessons suggests to me that these same people are unlikely to equally pull their weight in a group.

So the question comes down to why are these people paying to NOT come to the meagre amount of lessons we have? I guess they are paying £3,200 a year for the "student lifestyle", which is all well and good because I imagine they couldn't get up to half the things they do here if they were living in their parents house, but still. Even renting a flat wouldn't be as expensive as being at uni. I can't help but think of the people who didn't get a place on the courses over the people who are on courses but never go to lessons. Seems awful unfair to me. I am the last person you would see condoning the rise in tuition fees, however it most likely would stop the people who come and don't bother going to lessons and might make people think twice about missing out on lessons to go drinking. But then it probably wont, because the world is just a big mess like that.

The Weekend Starts Over There

Had a class today, words and images, best one of the week. We went to Sheffield train station to take pictures to write Haiku's for homework, which went fine until security guards politely, and then not so politely, moved us along. We did however manage to get some snaps before they so rudely ruined our homework. Just a warning, my Haiku's aren't brilliant.

 

Click on the images to enlarge :) We are meant to do five but so far I have only thought of these three, and this one for fun:

They were meant to have metaphors like my friend has just kindly pointed out, but oh well I've got two weeks to do proper ones. These are just a bit of fun i guess. Wait... what?? Fun with poetry? Me? Something must be wrong with me.

A huge long boring weekend looms ahead, that's the problem with uni, never anything to do. I will most likely spend the whole time in bed. I've been very tired recently but haven't been doing much with my life. There is probably a reason for this, most likely that I don't go to bed until 2am, or something to do with my diet maybe. 

I finished the whole Millennium series (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo). They were sooooooo good!! I advise anyone and everyone to read them! I'm now onto a set of Roald Dahl books my step mum bought me, almost finished Boy. They all seem very quick reads, a day for each one I would guess :) 

Pretty on the Inside and Out

Yeah right. All I can say to these people is, who are you kidding? Maybe someone can be beautiful on the inside, if who they are trying to please likes that kind of personality, or shares the same interests. But on the whole I would say on the inside we are all abstract and weird, misshapen and frail. This isn't so much a bad thing, I am not trying to say we are all weirdo's and are messed up in some way. I am just trying to say that we are all different and because there is so much less pressure put on our personality than our looks, that is OK.

However when appearance becomes involved it is a whole different story. I, just like everyone else in the world, desperately seek acceptance. Most of us dress up, cake our faces with makeup, hit the gym and diet all just in the hope that one day someone will comment on how nice we look, have we lost weight etc. Those who do none of those things are the people who gave up a long time ago, and those who say they never were like that, you aren't fooling anyone. Every single one of us gets that lovely feeling deep down inside, the warmth that you can physically feel, when someone compliments you. Then you go home and look in the mirror and think, maybe they're right. After that we allow ourselves a tiny moment of self worth. This lasts only until the next time you look at yourself in the mirror. The next time you look you think, I haven't lost weight, what am I wearing? I look awful today. We bombard ourselves with self destructive comments that eat away at our ego. We watch films with beautiful women and think, I could never ever be like that. Every day we wish to be more than we are, but already know that we can never be more than what is right there in front of us. Sure, we can lose a few pounds here and there, spend a fortune on a new dress that only gets worn once or twice, but in the end it comes back down to the same fact. We all want to be told we are beautiful.

I am one of these people. Now when having my weight guessed this weekend by someone close to me, and they suggest 15 stone, I suddenly realised how the world sees me. I wont say how much I do weigh, but I will say it is less than 15 stone, and as any woman, and probably man too, knows that when someone thinks you are heavier than you are, that screams one thing: FAT.

I have never been good at taking my own advice. I was going to use this post to make a comment about real women, and about how beautiful every single one of us is. But I wouldn't take that on board myself. I do however want to start an exercise and I urge anyone who reads this, man or woman, to take part. I want to create a post telling the world how beautiful we are. Post anonymously if you want, that's fine. But tell me, what is the one thing you like best about yourself?

I'll start. I love my eyes and my eyelashes.

And then, just to brighten someone else's life that little bit, send your best friend a compliment, or next time you see someone tell them something you like about what they're wearing, or how they have done their hair.

Some People are so Rude

Today as part of my dad's birthday celebration we went bowling (amazing fun, we both won a game each :) ). However the downfall of the day was the young gentleman at the bit where you exchange your shoes for those amazing bowling shoes that slip too easy on the carpet and feel very unlike real shoes. This young man was the essence of rudeness. He didn't look at us when he spoke to us and he straight out patronised my dad, who I don't think noticed, or if he did he didn't care. But I did. No one talks like that to my dad. It literally made me feel sick. How dare he speak to us like that? We were paying customers and he was plain arrogant. I soon realised, however, it wasn't just rudeness to us. A young lady approached him to ask about how to work the keyboard to type in their names. He was so sarcastic and patronising to her I could have kicked him. People like that don't deserve to be payed. I totally understand Mary Portas plight for better customer service. I should tell her she needs to go to Sheffield Hollywood Bowl and sort that guy out.

On a lighter note we had a wonderful day of Pizza hut and Yorkshire Sculpture Park, even if the wind was crazy, but the windswept look is in, right?